Just so there’s no confusion tomorrow, let’s set this straight right now.

There will be no moral victory for the Jets tonight. They will take no “little steps forward” if they lose a close one to the Miami Dolphins on national television. If the worst should happen, they will not search for positives in the sea of negativity that is defeat in the NFL.

Now that we all understand one another, let’s move on. Last week, in the wake of the Jets’ 13-7 loss to New England, a lot of folks got stuck in the mud debating whether the resulted constituted a “good” loss or a “bad” loss.

No one got stuck deeper than head coach Herm Edwards, who seemed to endorse the “good loss/moral victory” side of the argument last Sunday, only to declare Holy War on reporters who quoted him and his players accurately the following morning.

There will be no such ambiguity tomorrow morning if the 5-1 Jets wake up as the 5-2 Jets, having stumbled against what may still be the NFL’s worst team.

A strong case can be made that no one on the Jets, including the always upbeat Edwards, really believed they would beat the defending champion Patriots last week up in Foxboro.

If so, Chad Pennington would not have said, “Hey, we feel good about ourselves,” after failing to get the ball in the end zone on four tries late in the fourth quarter while trailing by six.

If so, John Abraham would not have said, “For us, it was a moral victory.” And Edwards would certainly not have said, “Our team took a little step forward today.”

No matter how Edwards & Co. tried to spin it after seeing their own words in black-and-white, there was a definite lack of self-belief in their statements and a dose of hypocrisy in their justifications. If the Jets truly believed they had reached, or at least neared, the Patriots’ level with their 5-0 start, how could they be anything but angered by the loss?

After all, this is the same team that pooh-poohed criticism of their narrow victories over the likes of Cincinnati, Buffalo, and yes, Miami just four weeks ago. “There’s no style points in football,” Pennington had said – so how could solace be taken in a narrow loss?

They won’t have that problem tonight. A win over the Dolphins will need no explanation, and a loss will come with no legitimate excuses.

The Jets, still sitting right behind the Patriots at 5-1, have yet to prove they are all that much better than the 1-6 Dolphins. Tonight is their chance.

Ever since Ricky Williams decided he’d rather be a Lenny Kravitz groupie than a Dolphins running back, Miami has been a team in disarray. Meanwhile, the Jets’ fast start has obscured their own weaknesses. Pennington has passed for a high completion percentage, but the overwhelming majority of those passes have been dump-offs to RBs Curtis Martin and Jerrold Sowell.

Martin has run well, but is 31 years old with an odometer well past 12,000 yards. New wide receiver Justin Mc-Careins had a good game against the Patriots, but has yet to become the go-to receiver he was projected to be. And the Jets’ offense is still dull and predictable.

The deepest problems, however, exist on defense. New coordinator Donnie Henderson is a dynamic personality, but it seems his younger, faster personnel has failed to fully master his schemes. The defensive backfield has been particularly vulnerable to surrendering huge chunks of real estate, and as a result, Henderson said he will be juggling personnel and assignments tonight.

The last time these two teams met on Monday Night Football, the Jets emptied the place by falling behind, 30-7, in the fourth quarter before rallying to win, 40-37, in overtime. Known as The Midnight Miracle, the game was later voted by fans the greatest Monday Night game in history.

Tonight, there should be no need for such heroics. “I’d just like to see a good, solid win,” Pennington said.

And not of the moral variety. Tonight, it’s simply win or lose, no explanations, no excuses necessary.

Mr. Matthews is the host of the “Wally and the Keeg” sports talk show heard Monday-Friday from 4-7 p.m. on 1050 ESPN radio.